Please help my ears

[Dawlfin25]

Hi all, my boyfriend has spoken the praises of scubaboard so I thought I would come here to seek some information. I'm a new diver, with 17 dives under my belt, I dive in the brisk waters of Monterey, CA. I'm not sure if this is related but I was plagued with chronic ear infections as a child, having said that, I have trouble getting my left ear to clear in general on all dives. If doing repetitive dives, my left ear develops pain and I have to sit and wait for it to stop, I never feel the pop but the pain goes away and allows me to dive. On another unrelated? note, on 3 of the last 5 dives I've done, I've experienced vertigo, once on ascent, once on the bottom and once after looking at my gauges and then looking back up. It lasts for anywhere between a few seconds to a minute and then subsides completely once I've surfaced. Also, sometimes I have sinus pain on my left side after diving. Now, having said all that, I love diving! I just was wondering if there was anyway I could make it easier on myself. Thank you all in advance for the help and proving my boyfriend right about scubaboard!

 

[Papa_Bear]

Visit an ENT Doc and get checked out! Your tubes that connect your sinus and your ears may have some problems on the left side? Try stretching your neck as far as you can while you equalize gently and start before you even get in the water and every 5ft or before you feel any pressure! Relax and stretch that neck and go up slower to give your ears a chance to adjust! Good luck and welcome to the board!

 

[DandyDon]

Welcome to SB. Yes, an ENT exam would certainly be indicated. Please do post what you learn from the physician...

I suspect the current ear problems and the vertigo are directly related. The link below to a 45 minute video on Equalizing may help, certainly a good one to learn from, even tho it may well not be the solution to your problems.

Three letter words are little tricky to for on V-boards so I ran one on "ear" threads for you on this Medical forum, which is a large portion of the threads as it does seem to be the most common new diver problem. Please click here to look over the thread titles, review the discussions that seem most interesting. Go to page 2 and beyond if you'd like.

good luck

 

[CompuDude]

Read over the info on this page. It also includes a link to the Divers Ear presentation DandyDon alluded to above.

Doc's Diving Medicine Home Page

Given the vertigo, an ENT exam is worth pursuing, but the video may still have a good amount of helpful information for you. Please, do yourself the favor of setting aside some time to watch it.

It's also possible that a pair of Docs Pro Plugs might help you equalize easier, and reduce the problems as a result, if there are some unique issues to your ears (possible, due to the early chronic ear infections... so the ENT recommendation is worth checking into). There is some argument about their effectiveness, but given a respectable number of divers who report near-miraculous success with them, I find it hard to discount them entirely.

Finally, there are a number of articles on DAN's website that are worth reading, with regard to diving and ears. Divers Alert Network : DAN Medical Center : Medical Articles

Good luck, and welcome to diving... and ScubaBoard!

 

[scubagoldmc]

My wife had problems when we started diving. It was eventually found to be allergies. She is now on an allergy medication and it has done wonders. It might be worth checking out.

Mike